I had thought that there would be a lot of significant new information to add in this edition but nothing major has occurred since the last newsletter. There will however be a new release (10.2.9) of Workload Automation and an SPE PTF (SPE10206) for zWS by the end of 2026, so I will report on these next time.
AI responses to low severity cases
Something very new is that for severity 3 or 4 cases with no documentation sent in, AI may attempt to make an initial update. This update WILL say that it was generated by AI. If you have any doubt whatsoever about the answer provided just respond to the case and the next post will be from level 2 not AI. Level 2 does get a chance to provide feedback and corrections to the AI response, which can range from the AI post being very helpful to it being harmful if followed.
If you open a case and prviode an EQQMLOG or screen print (or any other file) there will not be any attempt by AI to respond.
HIPERS
There are no “brand new” HIPERS but some for which the HIPER flag was added after the PTFs had been available for some time, based on issues that we were seeing in reported cases that could be prevented.
(1) PH70565 ABEND 878 in EQQZHTCL load module followed by 0C4 IN GS task
10.2 PTF UO08197 superceded by UO08602
10.1 PTF UO08198 superceded by UO08562
(2) PH68874 A ZCENTRIC JOB IS CORRECTLY SUBMITTED AND RUN ON THE AGENT BUT
IT REMAINS IN S STATUS.
10.2 PTF UO05974
10.1 PTF UO05975 superceded by UO06131
TECHNOTES
ZWSTECHNOTE : Using VSAM SMB ( System Managed Buffers ) to reduce CPU consumption by the z Workload Scheduler controller task
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7293179
(more on this technote later in this newsletter)
ZWSTECHNOTE: Error EQQDF08E DB FILLER TASK EXCEPTION: CONNECTION CLOSED BY FEDERATOR. INVALID_TOKEN CONTEXT
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7288912
ZWSTECHNOTE: “java/lang/OutOfMemoryError” (JVMDUMP055I) during DWCz installation
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7288637
ZWSTECHNOTE : Additional ACTION HOLD items for PH72405 ( SPE10206 or 10.2 SPE6 ) for z Workload Scheduler 10.2
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7293547
BLOGS
blog site: http://www.workloadautomation-community.com/blogs
This one may be of interest:
More about VSAM SMB (System Managed Buffers)
For a long time products which can analyze performance characteristics of an address space (such as STROBE or OMEGAMON) have shown that a significant portion of the CPU time consumed by a controller task is related to VSAM buffer handling (this may show in the report as being attributable to a load module IDAxxxxx). Analysis of SMF data and dumps from a customer who was very new to using zWS (i.e. converting from a different scheduling product) showed evidence that using VSAM SMB would reduce CPU consumption. I benchmarked this in a “sandbox” type environment using a repeatable set of operations being submitted/executed and confirmed that a significant reduction in CPU time was seen. Note this change does not require any modification to the zWS code- it is a redefine/copy/rename of VSAM files (as explained in the technote) and a JCL change to explicitly request that SMB be used for the file. More internal testing will be done and the technote will be updated with any pertinent findings (such as which files are associated with the biggest CPU savings).
CONCLUSION
That’s all I wanted to cover today. The next edition will be in late December or early January.
ASAPU 2027 will be May 16-19 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (same location as in 2025).
